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India: Crackdown on Tamil Nadu Anti-Nuclear Plant Protests

Rezwan — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:49:02 +0000

Concerns have been sparked that the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) currently under construction in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, India, may have similar vulnerabilities to the ill-fated Fukushima nuclear power plant of Japan. Activists fear that in the case of an earthquake followed by a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, there could be an accident similar to the radiation leak at the Japanese coastal nuclear plant last year.

Construction started more than a decade ago and KKNPP is expected to be in operation soon. S. P. Udayakumar of the voluntary organisation ‘People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy' (PMANE) lists 13 reasons why the activists and locals do not want the power plant to start. He stress that:

More than 1 million people live within the 30 km radius of the KKNPP which far exceeds the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) stipulations. It is quite impossible to evacuate this many people quickly and efficiently in case of a nuclear disaster at Koodankulam.

Protest campaign against Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. Image courtesy Kracktivist, used with permission.

Protest and arrests

Shedding a light onto the government crackdown on the protesters, Kracktivist cites:

Between 10.9.2011 and 23.12.2011, police had filed 107 FIRs (field investigation reports) against 55795 people and “others,” among whom 6800 have been charged with “sedition” and/ or “waging war against the State.”

In March 2012, police arrested approximately 200 anti-nuclear protesters objecting the resumption of work on one of the two 1 GW (gigawatt=1000 megawatt) reactors, a day after the local government restarted work on the project. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has also been filed against KKNPP at India's Supreme Court. Amnesty International has written a letter to the Prime Minister expressing their dismay on the detainment of the protesters. However, there were also rallies and protests in favor of commissioning the nuclear power plant.

The protests continued as the ‘People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy' (PMANE) recently launched three campaigns against the Kudankulam Nuclear power Plant, reports Kracktivist:

Collection of signatures by villagers who oppose the nuclear plant and surrender of voter identity cards will be observed in 60 villages belonging to three neighboring districts while [a] ‘respect India’ campaign will be observed throughout the country.

On May 9, around 23,000 people belonging to nine villages in Tamil Nadu surrendered their voter identity cards to draw attention to the continuing ignorance of the peaceful protest against the KNPP. The government did not take it lightly; Kracktivist also reported that thousands of police personnel were deployed near Idinthakarai village and a crackdown seemed likely.

According to a press release, “The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) called off the planned event at Idinthakarai on May 10, 2012 as the District authorities have clamped down prohibitory orders such as 144 in and around Kudankulam area”.

Protesters on hunger strike. Image courtesy DiaNuke/Aaam Janata, used with permission.

However, some 9,000 people still participated in a sit in, with several hundred on an indefinite fast. The hunger strike has been going on since last month. DiaNuke/Aam Janata has posted some pictures from Kudankulam which depicts women on hunger strike and villagers living under constant fear.

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa, has vowed that the plant will start to function soon. Anuj Wankhede at DiaNuke invited a debate with Dr. M R Srinivasan, the former chief of India’s Atomic Energy Commission on whether the Kudankulam reactors are really the “safest in the world”, as claimed by the authorities.

The anti-Kudankulam activists are willing to end their protest if the government meets their demands.

India: Cricket Or Wife

Rezwan — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:38:46 +0000

Jaspreet discusses how some Indian men have to balance between their love for cricket and obviously for their wife.

India: Entertainment Industry Seeks Court Ban on Torrents and Vimeo

Aparna Ray — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:45:08 +0000

Since the beginning of May 2012, some ISPs across parts of India had been quietly blocking access to the popular video sharing site Vimeo as well as various torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, KickAssTorrents, BitSnoop etc.

According to media reports, this is because a film production house, namely Reliance Entertainment, has (once again) obtained a preemptive ‘John Doe‘ order from the Delhi High Court, prior to the release of some of their upcoming big budget films. The Company insists that this has been done in order to ‘prevent film piracy'.

Vimeo and Pirate Bay facing censorship in India. Graphic by author.

However, there was some confusion about the news because not all ISPs were seen to block access to the aforementioned sites.

On his blog Share Press, blogger Varma provided some more details:

As of now most of the Reliance Communications broadband visitors who try to access the blocked sites are redirected to a custom page saying “The site has been blocked as per instruction from DOT” message when browsing the above file sharing sites.

[…] There has been lots of Govt and private agencies looking for ways to block all illegal site access through internet. Their has been specific orders for all majors ISP’s in the country to block access of users to this website by taking appropriate steps like DNS name blocking on ISP level, IP address blocking via routers, and DPI based URL blocking.

Message that was appearing when trying to access sites like Vimeo on some ISPs like Reliance. Image by Share Press. Used with permission

Twitter has been abuzz with reactions and vehement protests against the blocking of the file sharing sites.

@lleshShah: I can not access #Vimeo.com. The emerging face of #censorship by #Govt of India… http://pic.twitter.com/eT8FRrPD

@ajantriks: has @vimeo been blocked in #india or only i am getting crazy error message? @anjakovacs @jackerhack @zainabbawa @geohacker

@jackerhack: @ajantriks Blocked on Reliance and maybe other networks. Reliance got a court order to block piracy before a film release @vimeo @anjakovacs

@kaustubh4evr: Vimeo Blocked in India Along with BitTorrent Sites: Censorship, at the behest of movie studios or music labels, … http://bit.ly/LepfJ4

@mihirfadnavis: Terrorism? Food shortage? Power cuts? Corruption? NO SIR, Vimeo is by far the biggest threat to India!

@varunasingh: @relianceworld Whatever you are doing is pathetic and against the motives of the internet.

@_anshulk: Blocking vimeo is stupid #reliance #censorship #india

@wewakesaynoy: For those of you using Reliance internet: they have blocked TPB, Vimeo & will follow with others. Do you really want an ISP that does that?

@TheBigGeek: @vimeo blocked by #reliance and not by #Bharti and #Tata #VSNL #CRAZY how can a DOT order be only for one ISP :****

The hue and cry over the blocked sites appear to have had an impact. The sites have been unblocked on the Reliance ISP, as this Facebook message by Chai Kadai informs us:

Vimeo is back on for us. Yay! Maybe Reliance Communications got some sense into its head or people found some other ways to download the movie. Whatever the reason. For now, happy to have Vimeo. Still don't understand how they got to block it in the first place.

Some of the tweeple have seconded the information that the sites can now be accessed on the ISP concerned.

@crazyscorpio12: Finally! TPB and vimeo unblocked on reliance india. Whew!

@aditya_bhatt: TPB and Vimeo are unblocked on Reliance now.

However, this appears to be a temporary respite. Until their next big release, that is.

Pakistan: Partition Era Writer Saadat Hasan Manto Lives On

Kumail Ahmed — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:14:08 +0000

Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was a short-story writer, a dramatist and also a translator from Punjab. Today the people of the sub-continent are celebrating his 100th birth anniversary highlighting his significance in the India-Pakistan partition era. Art councils in Pakistan, press clubs, and literary clubs are organizing festivals to remember his legacy and his importance in today's society.

Manto's basic contribution to Urdu literature (with respect to partition) is that he considered the killing of thousands of Hindus and Muslims during migration as a massacre of humanity rather than of any single religion. He said:

Don't say that a hundred thousand Hindus or a hundred thousand Muslims have been massacred. Say two hundred thousand human being have been slaughtered.

Saadat Hasan Manto. From twitter: @siddharth426

This was Manto's message at the time when religious division was at its peak. People were divided - rather isolated - on religious differences and did not consider killing a major crime against humanity. In such times, Manto rose as a messenger of humanism in the subcontinental literature. He wrote dramas like ‘Toba Tek Singh' (name of a village in Pakistani Punjab), in which he highlighted the miseries of partition.

But is Manto relevant today? Yes! He definitely is relevant. His criticism on the hypocritical societal values, his attitude towards social taboos and ethos [ur], and his whimsical remarked towards United States makes him a living legend. Manto, as Zahida Hina rightly says, was a visionary.

Manto's writing can today help Pakistan to come out from the abyss of fundamentalism and extremism which is increasing day by day. The cultural and political crises which Pakistan is facing today were seen years ago by Manto in his article ‘Allah ka bara fazl ha' (God's benevolence is infinite).

Social media was flooded with comments regarding Manto's life and his work.

B. P. Singh praises Manto with the following words:

Perspicacious man, a real human being, I have acted in one of his plays in India, and truly I follow some of his writing religiously. If the mankind seriously follows his writing spirit, the world really will become a heaven! True homage and salute to a nice person ‘Manto'.

Some tweets:

@navedjaved: Remembering a prolific writer and a genius of his times, Saadat Hasan Manto on his birthday- RIP Legend!

@manish0891: Its 100th birth anni.of Saadat Hasan #Manto, one of the best short story writer of the Urdu language.

@osamamotiwala: Saadat Hasan Manto, although you are just a memory, but some memories last forever. Shine on you crazy diamond.

Manto was never frightened from expressing his thoughts. He had to go to court for his writings. But, Manto only wrote what he saw. Nazir Ahmed Minto comments:

Manto only wrote what he SAW,…… and which those people did not want too see !

Naveeda Valentina tweets:

@NaveedaV: Janam din mubarak (Happy Birthday) Saadat Hasan Manto! A man who pulled no punches indeed. *jaam chalkaoing*

@NaveedaV: Happy Birthday Saadat Hasan Manto! A man who pulled no punches indeed.

Manto is being given overwhelming coverage in Pakistani media (for English see: DAWN, THE NEWS). This fact is praise-worthy enough to be quoted. Although fanaticism has risen in the soicety, but Manto's voice still lives on.

Ahmed Shakeel tweets:

@Ahmed_Shakeel: It is heartening to see birth centenary of short story writer in Urdu Saadat Hasan Manto finds wide coverage especially in non Urdu media.

Manto died on 18th January 1955 at the age of 43. His thoughts will always be with us. Vivek Martolia comments:

manto sahab amar rahenge hamesha ke liye , he is alive in his stories.

Manto will live forever, he is alive in his stories.

India: Mysterious Village of Twins People

Rezwan — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:29:33 +0000

Undiscovered Indian treasures Blog reports that Kodhini, a town in Kerala, India, with a population of only 2000 villagers has around 350 twins. This rate is 700 times of the global average.

India: Online Cartoon Exhibition Protesting Repression

Rezwan — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:43:06 +0000

The arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of Jadavpur University, for circulating West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees's cartoon has enraged many online activists. A cartoon exhibition protesting her acts is available online.

India, Pakistan Missile Launches: Game Changers or Mere Posturing?

Aparna Ray — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:01:30 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage International Relations & Security.

On April 19, 2012, India successfully test-fired its Agni V inter-continental ballistic missile (IBCM). With a range of over 5,000 kilometres, the Agni V places India’s missile capabilities increasingly in line with the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China. The following week, neighboring Pakistan successfully test-launched its nuclear capable ballistic missile, the Shaheen 1-A.

These back-to-back missile tests received widespread coverage and comment on mainstream and social media outlets. In particular, netizens have been engaging in lively online discussions regarding the escalating arms race in South Asia and its impact on the overall security of the region.

While many netizens across India and Pakistan, fuelled with nationalistic fervor, engaged in hyperbole regarding the respective missile launches, there has been some strong criticism in the Pakistani blogosphere regarding the United States’ response to India's missile launch. Labeling it as “double standards”, Yasmeen Ali, a university professor based in Lahore, wrote on Pakpotpourri2's blog:

The Agni V missile being launched off the coast of Odhisa, India, on 19th April, 2022. Image courtesy Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)

The need here is to support a country within the region to act, or seem to act as a deterrent to China. Obvious choice: India.What USA had completely overlooked in this game of regional hegemony is when you let the genie out of the bottle, it will refuse to go back in the bottle. It can one day, turn upon the master, once his heart’s desire of being let out is fulfilled.

However, a section of netizens felt that these missile tests were not going to escalate security tensions among India, China and Pakistan. On his blog Chaturanga, Jaideep Prabhu pointed out that India's policy was to acquire a ‘minimum credible deterrent' and not to escalate an arms race, as was being loosely discussed in a section of the media.

He commented:

The launch of the China-specific Agni V has generated much talk about an arms race between China and India, and consequently, India and Pakistan. The Chinese media (and hence the government) has taken exception to this, reacting sharply to the test and labeling it as India’s missile delusion…But unless India has abandoned its old policy of MUD (Mutually Unacceptable Damage), analysts and Beijing have jumped the gun.

On the blog Rolan San Juan, Rajesh Basrur, a Senior Fellow and the Coordinator of the South Asia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), argued that the Agni-V launch was “inconsequential” in that it would not change India's “deterrence game vis-à-vis China.

In his post on The Christian Science Monitor, Scott Baldauf referred to the chain of events as ‘ritual aggression' between India and Pakistan, a posturing more out of habit than actual security concerns, especially given that the two countries were currently trying to develop closer ties.

He wrote:

These tests follow an extraordinary set of meetings between the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi earlier this month, in which the two nations pledged to increase trade ties and to fight against extremism. While these missile tests might have seemed to be a setback in earlier times, they have now become a kind of theater of virility, separate from any political discourse.

There were hardly any major security concerns expressed in the social media of neighbors such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide.

Visit the ISN blog and see more related stories.

India: Freedom Fast To Save Your Voice

Rezwan — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:28:55 +0000

The protests to stop the new IT rules in India (see our previous post on this) are still going on. Today is the fifth day of the hunger strike of Aseem Trivedi and Alok Dixit from Save Your Voice to support annulment motion against IT Rules-2011 in Rajya Sabha. They started this hunger strike on the 2nd of May and vowed to carry on until they get any satisfactory response from the government and the opposition regarding the annulment of IT Rules-2011. Sh. P. Rajeev, the Hon’ble Member of the Rajya sabha has moved an annulment motion to get these rules abolished and the motion has been admitted and is expected to come up in this budget session.

On behalf of Save Your Voice, a Facebook campaign, updates are being published in Aam Janata blog. Some excerpts:

(The) Government has enacted laws that give it a free pass to censor our Facebook posts, listen to every Skype conversation we have, monitor our tweets or blogs oraccess private photographs and documents we store online, or track our location using our mobile phones or surveil all of your online activity. We want to tell our government that they cannot use vaguely defined laws and loopholes to take away our freedom of speech and expression.

It seems that many Indians have not yet realized the perils of the new IT rules and the censorship it threatens - they think “can anyone really censor the Internet?”. Vidyut explains the situation and asserts why activism is needed to stop such dark law.

Indian Law and Technology Blog lists the things an activist should do to get rid of the IT rules 2011.

Freedom Fast Hunger Strike And Sit in at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, India. Image courtesy ‘I Love India'

Arvind Gaur, prominent theatre artist and director of Ashmita Theatre, was at the Freedom Fast at Jantar Mantar, New delhi. In the above photo he is sitting with Alok Dixit and Aseem Trivedi.

Arvind is against the implementation of the IT Act and says that internet, which is a source of expression of the common man, should be provided ‘free' and not be brought under any rules.

The mainstream media has been silent on these protests. Some lone voices can be seen on Twitter providing updates:

@rahulgaitonde: RT @nixxin: In case you weren't aware, there's a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar against the IT Rules http://t.co/6865MHhb

@saveyourvoice: Fifth day of FREEDOM FAST- Alok Dixit and Aseem Trivedi have been admitted to Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, due to health breakdown.

Thumbnail image courtesy Save Your Voice

India: The Best Tea Cafés

Rezwan — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:57:41 +0000

There is a new hype in India - the rise of tea cafés (tea lounges or tea bars). Charukeshi lists some of the best tea cafés in different Indian cities which you can explore.

India: Budget & Corruption

Rezwan — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:04:29 +0000

Ramanujapuram analyzes the Union Budget (annual budget of the Republic of India), and opines that the tax payers are paying interest for the scams and corruption of some of the members of the ruling coalition.

India: Google Search's Change in Algorithm and Its Impact

Rezwan — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:10:23 +0000

Google Search Engine, the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, has been successful primarily because of a patented algorithm called ‘PageRank' that helps rank web pages that match a given search string. The PageRank algorithm analyzes human-generated links assuming that web pages linked from many important pages are themselves likely to be important.

To harness this phenomenon of this popular search engine an industry of professional consultants for search engine optimization have emerged to influence their clients' websites' Google rankings. Although Google has published specific guidelines for website owners who use optimization consultants to raise their rankings, some have devised unethical means to generate links to influence the search engine algorithm. And Google has taken these complaints seriously.

Google’s recent algorithm change (called Penguin) affected low quality SEO/link building services, much of which was being outsourced by the US to countries like India. A report claims that this update has impacted employment in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and internet workers staged protests. However this information has not been verified by other sources.

There are many discussions in the industry on how to recover from the change in algorithm. Experts say that Google's new algorithm has wiped out sites engaging in webspam and black hat SEO tactics.

In a guest post Ajay Verma, co-founder of a price and product comparison portal, writes in Medianama:

Google’s new proposed metrics aren’t changing the platform at large but only the perception. It also helps filter some junk publishers. Even though ‘Clicks on Ad’ is perceived to be a transparent metric, reports suggest a ~20% fraud rate here. One can well imagine the faith of impression based spends. Hence the clean up was required.

Ajay concludes:

This is a welcome move from Google. A small step with the change in metrics will prove to be a giant leap in online advertising.

India: Photo Essay On Working Mothers

Rezwan — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:00:59 +0000

Pattabi Raman’s photo essay on working mothers in parts of rural India is up at the International Museum for women. The photo essay highlights issues that are specific to women in parts of rural India, such as the threat of displacement due to industrialization.

India: Five Legal Points The Bloggers Should Know

Rezwan — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:38:13 +0000

Apar Gupta discusses about the legal concerns of a blogger and five legal points one should know while blogging in India.

India: Protests Against the New IT Rules

Rezwan — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:40:42 +0000

In April 2011, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of India quietly issued ‘Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011’ restricting web content that are designated as “disparaging,” “harassing,” “blasphemous” or “hateful.” Rishabh Dara at The Center for Internet And Society cites the rule's chilling effects on free expression on the Internet.

Moreover, the Indian government has asked the United States to ensure that India-specific objectionable content are removed from the social networking such as Facebook, Google and YouTube. According to news reports they also want these international service providers to set up servers in India to help regulate the content locally.

We have already seen several incidents of online contents being taken down for containing ‘offensive’ content. Vinaya Naidu shares how the Mumbai Police Crime Branch put a ban on cartoonist Aseem Trivedi's website www.cartoonsagainstcorruption.com, following a complaint that his cartoons were disrespectful to the nation:

There was no legal notice, no court order, no advance warning and not even a letter/email requesting to remove the objectionable content. And this is the freedom of expression in the world’s largest democracy. Since then, Aseem has continued to fight against corruption through his blog ‘www.cartoonsagainstcorruption.blogspot.in’ which is quite under the scanner.

Save Your Voice Facebook Campaign by Aseem Trivedi and journalist Alok Dixit

The discussion forum on ‘Internet Censorship’ at Indiblogger.in captures more opinions on such threats.

Amrit Hallan writes:

To be frank, the Internet scares the shit out of them, especially after WikiLeaks, the unshackled conversations over Twitter and Facebook and social networking-supported civic unrests. And it’s not just the government; all the agencies, may it be bureaucracy, the conventional mainstream media and the old school businesses that thrive on people’s inability to communicate with each other, would like to throttle the free flow of information on the Internet. Precisely this is the reason why there is no hue and cry on TV channels on the government’s new censorship drive.

Amrit lists the threats according to the new Information Technology Guidelines notified by the government which will create an Orwellian world.

Internet Democracy project quotes Anja Kovacs talking about the background on such rule:

Since its founding, the independent Indian nation-state has wielded censorship as a tool to both contain the conflicts that emanate from India’s tremendous diversity and to ensure its homogeneous social, moral and political development. [..]

But if the advent of satellite television already revealed the vulnerabilities of this strategy, the Internet has of course made clear that in the long term, it is simply untenable. [..]

India’s use of censorship as a way to ensure national harmony has of course to some extent always had to elide, and silence, the enormous diversity within Indian society itself; censorship always benefits the status quo, and the Indian case has been no different.

This video by Internet Democracy Project shows the impact of the new IT rules:

The Indian Netizens are not sitting idle. This petition titled “MPs of India: Support the Annulment Motion to Protect Internet Freedom #stopitrules” is circling in the web and more and more citizens are signing. On April 22, several organizations and forums issued this press release which revealed:

In view of the possible deleterious effects of the Rules, the Honorable Member of Parliament, Shri P. Rajeeve has moved a statutory motion to get the aforesaid Rules annulled. This motion has been admitted and will be coming up before the Rajya Sabha during the second half of the Budget session of the parliament that starts on 24th of April, 2012.

The press release calls all MPs to support the annulment motion. In the meantime a public interest litigation, calling the amended IT rules “unconstitutional”, has been filed in Kerala.

Here is a list of more campaigns:

Internet Democracy project organized a day-long training program on freedom of expression and censorship for bloggers called ‘Make Blog Not War’.
Aseem Trivedi and journalist Alok Dixit have started campaign on Facebook titled ‘Save your voice which highlights many protests.
A tumblr site publishes pictures of individuals holding the placard “Don't Censor me”.

Don’t Censor Me - Pranesh. Image courtesy http://dontcensormeindia.tumblr.com/

Protests are going in several parts of the country against the IT rule. Ashfaq reports about a protest on 21 April:

FreeSoftware Movement Karnataka(FSMK) organized a protest to show our concern over these vaguely made laws. Blogger's, students, Teachers, IT professionals, Photographers came together in the center of the city shouting slogans and holding banners showing their apathy towards this new rule.

Protest at Karnataka. Image Courtesy Ashfaq at Just Another Coincidence. Click on the image to see more pictures.

Harshitha shares the experience:

A mass of young, energetic and vibrant youth, software engineers and bloggers voiced their opinion. Being among them I felt the power of connectivity, an air of pride, of struggle for freedom. People sang in vigor, held placards and shouted slogans to save the internet.

I really hope the Indian government keeps the democracy alive by not passing the bill.Let's all strive for betterment of the society and let freedom of expression prevail.

Freedom in a cage campaign. Image Courtesy Save Your Voice. Click on image for more pictures

Another protest by Save Your Voice titled “Freedom In A Cage” was held in April 22, in Delhi's Jantar Mantar. Check the report and the pictures at the Kafila blog.

India: The Hand Drawn Rickshaws in Kolkata

Rezwan — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:44:27 +0000

Debolina Raja Gupta notes that although the West Bengal Government In India had decided to take the hand drawn rickshaws off by 2005-2006 they are still plying in Kolkata roads.